SUTHERLAND, CAITHNESS, AND WEST CROMARTY. 
occupies 31,787 acres, or about 60 square miles, including the im- 
proved lands at Lairg and in the parish of Kildonan, and the 
south-east shore of Loch Shin, as well as the scattered plots of 
crofters' possessions here and there over the county, besides others 
of the less important areas. 
Of the fresh-water area, the largest body of water is Loch Shin, 
being 18 miles in length, and having an average width of one to 
one and a half miles. This great lake forms an almost continuous 
canal-way, along with Lochs Griam, Merkland, More, and Stack, 
between Lairg at the south-east end of Loch Shin and Laxford 
Loch on the west coast, interrupted only by the watershed, of com- 
paratively low altitude, between Loch Merkland and Loch More. 
Other large sheets of water, all holding salmon, or sea-trout, or 
trout and char, are Lochs Naver, Laoghal, and Hope, in the north, 
connecting with the Pentland Firth ; Lochs Assynt, Cama, 
Veyatie, Fewn, and Urigill ; and Lochs Stack and More before 
mentioned. In the east centre are the large lochs, Badenloch, 
Loch-na-Clar, and Eimisdale, or Loch-na-Cuen, out of whicli flows 
the Helmsdale river ; and in the south-east is Loch Brora, through 
which flows the river of the same name, both it and the Helms- 
dale running into the German Ocean. Besides these larger reser- 
voirs of water there are innumerable lochs, lochans, and tarns of 
smaller area, especially numerous in the western districts of the 
county. 
Besides the above, we have a wooded area of natural birch-wood 
or planted ground, amounting in all, approximately, to 7296 acres, 
or about 1 1 square miles. By far the greatest part of this area is 
in the south-east, between Dunrobin and, the Dornoch Firth, and, 
though somewhat reduced of late, the woods around Eosehall : 
also those on the eastern bank of the river Oykel, and again at 
Tongue in the north and Loch Inver in the west. Even this com- 
paratively small area of wood has a great influence on the fauna 
and flora. The above figures refer in most part to the last 
ascertained areas in Mr. M'Donald's paper in The Highland and 
Agrimltural Society's Transactions for 1880. It would appear that 
in 1853 the woodland acreage was 10,812, and in 1872 it had been 
